Brownback, Clinton and Richardson Announce White House Plans

It was a rare politician in America who didn’t announce plans to run for the White House in 2008 this week-end. Senators Brownback (R-KS) and Clinton (D-NY) as well as Governor Richardson (D-NM) threw their respective hats into the ring over the week-end. It seems quite early to many since the first balloting for convention delegates is more than a year off, but in fact, the apparatchiks in both parties are trying desperately to prevent a grass-roots campaign from taking off. Getting establishment candidates announced early will help the Old Guard in both parties.

The three who announced this week-end are all part of their party’s core. Senator Sam Brownback is a social conservative whose first act as a candidate is to attend an anti-abortion rally later today. He has ceded the “send more troops” ground to others, he opposes the 21,500 troop escalation the president has set as his course. He also favors immigration reform and efforts to fight global warming. This demonstrates an independent streak that sells well in the Midwest and West. He won’t win because the Republicans operate on the “Buggins turn” rule, and it’s Senator McCain’s turn to win. All the same, Mr. Brownbeck is a thinking conservative, which is a marked improvement from the unthinking kind of the last 6 years.

Senator Clinton remains the front-runner in the Democratic Party, especially those who liked the Rockefeller Republicanism of her husband’s 8 years in the White House. The fact that she’s a woman plays well among some women and it annoys some men, and the entire gender issue is a canard. She is the favorite at this point because she is Mrs. Clinton. Her work in New York as junior senator has been professional but unspectacular, but the rolodex she’s compiled and the debts she is owed will come in handy. Her big problem is her love of calculation and “triangulation.” For example, she’s in favor of cutting off funding to Iraqi troops but not America troops. While it can be explained (but it is backwards if Iraq is to take over its own defense) as a rational policy, it looks at first blush like being too clever by half. “Slick Hillary” is not going to prevail in a general election where people want a new type of leadership.

Bill Richardson is that rare bird in elective politics, a guy who knows what he’s doing. He’s held two cabinet posts, he’s been a negotiator with the North Koreans, and he’s run New Mexico fairly well. A Richardson presidency would not be terribly exciting necessarily but no one would die for a lie, either. If he can raise the money, win in Nevada and position himself as a grown-up compared to the Bush crew, he could wind up in the cabinet again. Winning it all? Not in 2008.

The reason everyone and his/her dog are announcing this early stems from the front-loading of the primary calendar. Contested nominations cause too much trouble whereas coronations let a party focus all its money on the other side. Hence, the “invisible” primaries that are underway now. Who can raise the money, who can get the media attention, who gets to survive until Iowa’s caucuses is already being decided – by party bosses. It’s a three-card monte trick – pick any card one wishes, the choices have already been narrowed down to those acceptable to the party apparatchiks. The only wild card is whether there’s a billionaire out there willing to be 2008’s version of Ross Perot. Mike Bloomberg for President?

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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